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Power of the Ancient African Mind

BY: H. L. SMITH

Once you put all the purely African people and or people of African descent together…you’ve got a formidable force in the world. And what keeps them from greatness is their inability to unify their culture and make a connection to Africa. ~ John Henrik Clarke

The question probably can be asked how is the study of ancient African history relevant to resolving the societal pathologies of modern-day Black America? If a group of people have no sense of being part of the historical world, that is if we see ourselves as mere spectators that we just sat on the sidelines…as the march of humanity went by… influences how we live our life. Being cognizant and mindful of one’s history allows for a healthy attitude, self-esteem, self-concept and shouldn’t be undervalued.

Kemet (Egypt) is as important to Africans, and people of African descent, as Greece is to the Europeans. It is important for any group of people to have a sense or the ability to answer three questions about themselves, a) who am I, b) where in the world am I, c) how in the world did I get here? Most well-developed nations spend millions perhaps billions answering these questions about themselves, which is why we have the Smithsonian Institute in the USA, libraries; why USA have universities investing in history departments which is primarily a projection of Occidental, Western, Judeo-Greco-Christian civilizations.

To the contrary, African people have almost forgotten its history because we haven’t had the resources to take care of that part of our existence. It is the knowledge of one’s history that gives a strong sense of belonging…an identity which provides the basis for group unity…which provides the basis for political and economic power.

Most of us, for the most part have no idea nor understand the effort that’s being put forth to keep information about ancient Kemet (Egypt), the Nile Valley civilizations out of the hands and minds of Africans and people of African descent. The mechanism of deception, intensity, and how long this has been going on…and the fact that it is still going…completely escapes most of us.

The value in the study of ancient history is a very liberating process and must not be underestimated. Such study is one that takes us into many waters, for example it will take us into the waters of defamation of the African people, we’ll begin to see the calculated way that some people have tried to destroy African memory and culture. It’s very important for us to understand that these things have not happened by accident…that we recognize…when defamation occurs, and to understand the motivations of those who are doing this. How and why they do it? This is the only way we can defend ourselves against such deceptive demeanor.

One of the universal rules of oppression is that any group of people who wants to control another group…to prevent them from ascending…must destroy the historical human consciousness of that group of people. Otherwise, it’s impossible to continually oppress a conscious historical people, and the oppressor know this.

Africa has been portrayed by Euro-centric historians as a continent that is devoid of history and therefore Africa and its inhabitants (Africans) are not part and parcel of world history. It is only in the last fifty years that it has been possible to redress this distortion and BEGIN to re-establish Africa’s rightful place in world history.

During the 20th century African history has been resurrected in the writings of such African-American scholars as John Henrik Clarke, Chancellor Williams, Amos Wilson, Asa Hilliard, and other African Scholars including Cheikh Anta Diop, T. Obenga and George G.M. James. They have all supported the idea that African civilization influenced the rest of the world. Undoubtedly, because of their defensive position in the face of the awesome might of western scholarship…the advocates of a Black Egypt… have been most meticulous in proving their case as they seek to change…prevailing opinion and attitudes. To prove their points scholars such as Diop rely on anthropology, iconography, melanin dosage, tests osteological measurements, blood groupings, the testimony of classical writers, self-descriptive Egyptian hieroglyphic, divine epithets, Biblical eyewitnesses, linguistics and various cultural data in support of his opinions regarding the ethnicity of the ancient (Kemetic) Egyptian.

African people today are scattered all over the world, serving someone’s else purpose other than our own. It goes without saying that African-Americans and black people everywhere are products of those who came before us. Throughout the Americas and Europe, black people have the same bio-geographical who just a few centuries ago were brutally and violently uprooted from the African continent. We have shared the same path of humiliation and exploitation under slavery, and colonialism. Equally important we have the same aspirations for the total liberation for all the black people in the world.

The African continent is now recognized as the birthplace of humanity and the cradle of civilization. We still marvel at the great achievements of Kemet (Ancient Egypt), one of the most notable of the early African civilizations, which first developed in the Nile valley over 5000 years ago. Before the rise of Kemet, it seems likely that an even more ancient kingdom…known as Ta Seti…existed in what is today Nubia in Sudan. This may well have been…the earliest state…to exist anywhere in the world.

Africa can therefore be credited not only with giving rise to the many scientific developments associated with Egypt, engineering, mathematics, architecture, medicine etc. but also with important early political developments such as state formation and monarchy. This demonstrates that economic and political development, as well as scientific development was…during this early period…perhaps more advanced in Africa than in other continents.

Black civilizations can be traced back millenniums, yet it is difficult to furnish proof of Africans contributions to humankind when Europeans have purposely destroyed and defaced supporting evidence. The ruling class would have African-Americans believe that the African experience is limited to huts, spears and jungle life with no trace of civility, culture, organization, and self-sufficiency, until the white man appeared as their saving grace. Research exposes this chronicle as a gross fabrication a divide wider than the ocean.

If one dedicates itself to painstaking research…evidence will emerge…how over 100 African cities were destroyed along with other evidence supporting that it was Africa and not Europe who has served as a beacon for the establishment of proceeding civilizations.

To overcome it’s vital for the Black race to obtain sufficient and proficient “knowledge of self” which serves as a moral compass; without it we will continue to be like a sail ship without sails, wandering aimlessly lost, as intended by unscrupulous beings. However, it must be noted that there are some white scholars who are supportive of the evidence uncovered relative to Black civilizations. This support includes historians such as Gerald Massey; Basil Davison; Joel Freeman; scientist Richard Neave; and archeologist, anthropologist Walter Neves, to name a few.

It isn’t too late for Africans and people of African descent to regroup, refocus, and rebuild, economically, spiritually, politically and even militarily. There was a time when African civilizations mined their own natural resources alongside their fellow community members, bartering and supporting each other in a place where no one owned the land. There was no need for political parties, instead there were elders who possessed life’s knowledge, coming together as a council that was available to the community 24/7 for guidance, instructions and solutions. European influence has destroyed all of this, it seems that wherever they go, they bring NO light, but put OUT the light.

If we are someone who studies but do so…uncritically…or don’t participate in the production of scholarship raising the kind of questions and priorities we need to know about as an African person, person of African descent from an…African centered perspective…then there is nothing left for us but a…European centered…information base which will produce in our heads a European way of viewing the world, even though we are people of African descent…thus preventing ascension to greater heights.

H. Lewis Smith is the founder and president of UVCC, the United Voices for a Common Cause, Inc., http://www.theunitedvoices.com author of Bury that Sucka: A Scandalous Love Affair with the N-Word, and Undressing the N-word: Revealing the Naked Truth, Lies, Deceit and Mind Games. Follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thescoop1